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Travel dates

About the workproject

We need 4 volunteers

Hello, world!
We invite travelers who want to visit Russia to our unique place, which is called Red Bench Siberia. Red Bench – this is the name of our family project. Our family left big city for a new life in the country-side. Our house is a place, where we work a lot with our hands. Manual labor helps us rid our brains of fuss, learn to keep silence and trains patience, diligence and love. We follow an ecological way of life, breathe fresh air, drink clean water, enjoy the nature around us and live in harmony.
We live a simple, modest life, not consuming unnecessarily. We don’t watch TV and news. We play games with our kids. We like to read books, draw and play musical instruments.
Our house is open to all who share our point of view and want to experience authentic way of life in the Siberian village, being far away from big city system.
Accomodation and way of life
The accommodation we offer is mongolian yurt where you will sleep on your own matresses and sleeping bags. It is shared with other travelers (when there are many). The maximum number of guests is five. The toilet is outside. Instead of a shower we use “banya” – Russian sauna – where guests can also hand-wash their clothes. Heating is by a wood stove, which you will operate yourself.
We need only 3 hours of help per day in the garden that's why we don't provide food for all.
For feeing we ask for donation, it includes 3 times meals (only organic vegetables from our farm) + drinks + herbals + honey. In case you choose to eat together with us, we ask for donation - 500 roubles per day per person. Alternatively there are shops in the village, there are locals who sell dairy and you can cook for yourself. We have separate kitchen for cooking.

About the host

Albina (37)

Host since

2015

Languages

German, English, Russian

Last seen online

Hello world! Let us introduce ourselves, we Dima and Alya Borisovs and our two daughters are living in a small village called Zavyalovo, at 100km from Novosibirsk in Russia. We created one year ago a guest-house called Red Bench. Since, we already hosted many travellers in summer 2016 we open vegetarian tent-camping for budget travellers and will sell home-made food.

Let us present our home. We have two houses, one for our family and one for travellers. The house for travellers has one bedroom with four beds (including two double bed), a living room with a wood-burner and a kitchen. The toilets are outside. And if you want to wash yourself, we have a bania (Russian sauna). You can also wash your clothes in it. During summer, we have a big yurt where people can sleep on the floor. There is also a wood-burner in it.

We can offer you a lot of activities during your free time. For example, you can help people from the village. Thus you will discover a lot of profession like beekeeping, farming or working in bakery. We can organise excursion in the natural area of our village. It is a typical Russian countryside with big forest and huge trees. It looks really wild. In winter the Ob is frozen and we can offer you to go on snowmobile. The landscape is huge and impressed all our guests. We can go fishing under the ice in winter or in the classical way in summer. During this season, there are music festivals. Usually we go to help to organise and sell our handmade products. We also organise trips to Altai (volunteering is possible)

In conclusion, Zavyalovo is a typical Russian village. If you want to discover the Russian way of life with all our traditions, if you want to meet true Siberian, if you want to feel the power of nature surrounding you, if you want to learn how working with your hands or if you want simply meditate and make the point, we are sure our place is a good place for you. We will be glad to welcome you. Hope to see you soon!

Project dates

Work to be done

Expected workhours

3 hours a day

7 days a week

Work exchange deal

shared apartment

Come and join us in a small, traditional Siberian village and work with us in building our dream. But feel free as well just to hang out, or go for a bike ride in the woods or fish in the river. Travelers house "Red Bench" welcomes everybody to stay for free and enjoy Siberian hospitality.

We are a family of downshifters living in Zavialovo, a village near Novosibirsk. Here we want to organize the first eco free hostel for true travelers.

We offer our guests vegetarian food or food from the village like home eggs or milk. No chemical food.

You can also do other activities like work in the garden, paint, mow the lawn, cook, babysit our 2 year old daughter, and so on. If you want to engage in some other activities, you can try our traditional Russian banya, go for a walk in the woods or fish.

The village of Zavialovo is a unique place with beautiful nature, a magnificent, splendid, gorgeous sky, fish in the river, cows on the road, forest songs and cock-a-doodle-doo early in the morning where time stops and you feel like a teenager.

Families who want to bring their kids, you are more than welcome but pay attention that sleeping place is a Mongolian ger or tent outside.

We are looking for people who are interested in experiencing healthy living conditions and who want to share their life experience with us. This is more important than money.

shared meals

As for food - we ask for donation, it includes 3 times meals (only organic vegetables from our farm) + drinks + herbals + honey. In case you choose to feed together with us, we ask for donation - 500 roubles per day per person. Alternatively there are shops in the village, there are locals who sell dairy and you can cook for yourself. We have separate kitchen for cooking.